Dear Ghostvillagers,What are you afraid of? Triskaidekaphobia: The fear of the number 13. Arachnophobia: The fear of spiders (and bad horror movies). Acrophobia: The fear of heights. Glossophobia: The fear of public speaking. This Web site lists hundreds of named phobias. The fear is real enough that some scholar studied it, gave it a label, and put it in some reference book. If you take a minute to skim through the list, you’ll see that collectively, we fear almost everything (also called Panophobia).

Fear is subjective. Have a bad experience with something (especially when you’re young), and chances are you have a phobia. Fear can be debilitating. But it can also be the perfect motivator. On a recent 30 Odd Minutes mission, I asked a panel of ghost investigators, horror movie icons, and television actors why we like to be scared. The answers were varied and insightful from people who make a living either scaring us or being scared to some degree. Fear, it seems, taps into something primal.

When we’re afraid, the adrenaline starts to course through our veins. Our bodies prepare for fight or flight. We feel alive. I know that exhilaration is part of the reason people go on a paranormal investigation. Something could happen. Just being in a place where a tragedy occurred, or where people have experienced paranormal phenomena, heightens your senses. Tales of haunts and ghost encounters get our minds and psyches wandering and wondering.

We fear the unknown. That’s natural. We fear what we don’t understand. And when we work through that fear, we come out stronger and better for it. I’ve heard some paranormal investigators scoff at some people who venture into haunts as “thrill seekers.” My response is always: “What are you talking about?! If you don’t find this thrilling, why are you doing it?”

Thank you, Ghostvillagers, for all of the great feedback on my 2014 Haunted New England wall calendar with photography by Frank Grace! If you haven’t picked yours up yet, you can buy them online or ask for it in your favorite bookstore!

I dont scare easily and don't really have any phobias. It aggravates my son that he has yet to startle me. But as far as experiences with ghosts and spirtis, or whatever passes for that, I find it exhilarating. When in the moment of the experience, that's when my senses feel most alive. Even after an experience that at the moment I didn't realize as one, the same sensations comes over me, though not as strong.

Interests:Spirits, Photography, Paranormal Programs, Old Homes and Cottage Life

Posted 19 September 2013 - 08:54 AM

Spiders and heights! I'm not that fond of clowns either. I believe the spider thing did happen when I was young. We were at the cottage and I had just gone to bed. I turned my head toward the wall and seen these legs coming up on to the mattress. I went running out of the room screaming about the spider. My parents went in I heard something hit the bed. Mother said it was big, guess dad flushed it. Since then I don't like them but don't mind daddy long legs, doesn't make sense but there you go.

Bees and pretty much anything else in that general family with a stinger top my phobia list. I'm not allergic nor have I ever had a bad experience being stung (I've been stung probably only 3-4 times in my life with no ill effects). So I don't really know why the terror response, lol. It probably has something to do with seeing someone on television or a movie get stung with horrendous results. My dad worked nights, so he stayed home with me during the day while my mom was at work and he wasn't always careful with what he let me watch on TV.

I also have a really huge fear of dying in a traumatic way, most notably being cut in half and seeing and knowing what was going on before finally perishing. That's a thought that literally keeps me awake at night. I always wondered if that could possibly be a past life memory spilling over...but again, its probably just something I've watched on television before I was old enough to really process it, lol.

Funny this topic should come up now...since one of the most universal fears of my generation is trending on Twitter, Google and Yahoo. That clown in Northampton, UK is terrorizing people from both sides of the pond!

WW, be stronge and fend off any encroaching clown with make-up remover; that will show 'em.
Theresa, I have heard of the theory that phobias could be a tramatic past-life experience/memory with spills over into one's current life. No way to prove it, but interesting to acknowledge the possibility.
It's not really a phobia that I have, but I would not want to be eaten alive. I mean in a bad way.

Interests:Knitting and crocheting, scrapbooking, reading, listening to music and singing

Posted 23 September 2013 - 10:54 PM

I'm arachnophobic to an extent. I don't mind daddy long legs or wall spiders, but any other kind of spider... I'm either gonna squash the sucker, or get someone else to do it. Why? I really don't know, other than they freak me the f*** out. Also mildly acrophobic. Again, I dunno why. Past life probably. And I don't like clowns all that much either. I'm blaming Pennywise the Clown for that, though.

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be.Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.

Location:Connecticut's Côte Brune (I've never seen brown sea water before)

Posted 30 September 2013 - 03:00 AM

One of my greatest fears is posts with a wee, small font (yup, I'm talking about the first post, Jeff). I guess the default font size was just too scary?

As FDR once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". By giving into something and showing 'fear', you give it power over you. That power, or fear, can often find a way of escalating.I'm not saying that I'm fearless - I've felt 'apprehensive' and/or 'cautious' in certain situations - but I don't feel this is the same as feeling 'fearful'. I can't remember any instance where I ran away like a little girl, hands flailing above my head, screaming out for my mommy...although I do remember some times when I might have decided that a hasty retreat was a good option...

meanderer, I once, and only once, ran flailing my arms and screaming like a little girl, but my family was somehow able to drag me back to my wedding.
When it comes to any kind of paranormal event, I have never been frightened; it's as if I convert immediately into an investigator, that is if I realize the moment for what it potentially could be. The three apparitions I saw at different times were not ascertained as such until after the experience, but it amazed me. Now the shaking chair in which I was sitting several years back gave me a real chance to analyze an experience as it was happening, and at no moment did fear kick in.
Now viewing a reflection of myself nude in a mirrow, that's scary.

I've had to fight a number of them and even received a medal for one but I still hate fire.

Structural Fires, Brush Fires, I've even had to fight fires inside of tanks and that's a Tankers worst nightmare.

I get a bit crazy and very focused on stopping the fire at all costs.

I even fought a fire covered in Diesel Fuel from a Fuel spill earlier that afternoon.

Like I said....I'm a little OCD when it comes to fire.

The only difference between Socialism and National Socialism is the snappy uniforms. - Logan "Aside from ending Slavery, Fascism and Communist World Domination, War has never solved anything! ""For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute! But it's "Savior of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot." - Rudyard Kipling "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."---George Orwell "Always Remember-All Lessons in Life are Expensive.....and the last one costs you everything you have." - Logan" Socialism is just Communism without a Dictator....and you can always find a Dictator!" - Logan "An Armed Man is a Citizen. An Unarmed Man is a Subject. Subject to anything anyone wants to do to him." - Logan "Without the Second Amendment there is no First Amendment...or Third or Fourth or Fifth....or 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th or 27th!" - Logan

Bees and pretty much anything else in that general family with a stinger top my phobia list. I'm not allergic nor have I ever had a bad experience being stung (I've been stung probably only 3-4 times in my life with no ill effects). So I don't really know why the terror response, lol. It probably has something to do with seeing someone on television or a movie get stung with horrendous results. My dad worked nights, so he stayed home with me during the day while my mom was at work and he wasn't always careful with what he let me watch on TV.

I also have a really huge fear of dying in a traumatic way, most notably being cut in half and seeing and knowing what was going on before finally perishing. That's a thought that literally keeps me awake at night. I always wondered if that could possibly be a past life memory spilling over...but again, its probably just something I've watched on television before I was old enough to really process it, lol.

Funny this topic should come up now...since one of the most universal fears of my generation is trending on Twitter, Google and Yahoo. That clown in Northampton, UK is terrorizing people from both sides of the pond!

When I was about 4 or 5 I got up to go wee one night and after I finished I went into the front room where my Dad had all the lights out and was watching the classic Dracula movie. I sat in a chair behind him where he didn't see or hear that I was in the room until I guess I must have made a sound. Being my Dad he yelled at me to get back into bed.

From that night I've always slept with the covers around my neck.....No stinking Vampire is gonna bite MY neck!

The only difference between Socialism and National Socialism is the snappy uniforms. - Logan "Aside from ending Slavery, Fascism and Communist World Domination, War has never solved anything! ""For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute! But it's "Savior of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot." - Rudyard Kipling "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."---George Orwell "Always Remember-All Lessons in Life are Expensive.....and the last one costs you everything you have." - Logan" Socialism is just Communism without a Dictator....and you can always find a Dictator!" - Logan "An Armed Man is a Citizen. An Unarmed Man is a Subject. Subject to anything anyone wants to do to him." - Logan "Without the Second Amendment there is no First Amendment...or Third or Fourth or Fifth....or 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th or 27th!" - Logan

LOL, because the bed covers are the ultimate protection against vampire bites, logan.

I was 4 years old.....

and didn't have any garlic.

Pretty good spacial reasoning if you ask me.

The only difference between Socialism and National Socialism is the snappy uniforms. - Logan "Aside from ending Slavery, Fascism and Communist World Domination, War has never solved anything! ""For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute! But it's "Savior of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot." - Rudyard Kipling "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."---George Orwell "Always Remember-All Lessons in Life are Expensive.....and the last one costs you everything you have." - Logan" Socialism is just Communism without a Dictator....and you can always find a Dictator!" - Logan "An Armed Man is a Citizen. An Unarmed Man is a Subject. Subject to anything anyone wants to do to him." - Logan "Without the Second Amendment there is no First Amendment...or Third or Fourth or Fifth....or 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th or 27th!" - Logan

Oh, so it wasn't just last week, then. Okay, I'll give you that, logan.
My son is 17, and he still has those childhood fears. I found a garlic ring/wreath at an estate sale. I knew who would want it, so I got it, took it home and showed it to him. His first reaction was to hang it in his room to ward off vampires...purley as decoration, of course. He did qualify that with a "You never know."

The only difference between Socialism and National Socialism is the snappy uniforms. - Logan "Aside from ending Slavery, Fascism and Communist World Domination, War has never solved anything! ""For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute! But it's "Savior of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot." - Rudyard Kipling "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."---George Orwell "Always Remember-All Lessons in Life are Expensive.....and the last one costs you everything you have." - Logan" Socialism is just Communism without a Dictator....and you can always find a Dictator!" - Logan "An Armed Man is a Citizen. An Unarmed Man is a Subject. Subject to anything anyone wants to do to him." - Logan "Without the Second Amendment there is no First Amendment...or Third or Fourth or Fifth....or 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th or 27th!" - Logan